All news – Page 6368
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Globalstar tally increases as ICO changes business plan
Tim Furniss/LONDON Starsem launched another Soyuz-Ikar booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 18 October, carrying four more Globalstar satellites into orbit, bringing the total to 44. Starsem, the Aerospatiale Matra, Arianespace, Russian Space Agency and Samara Space Centre company, plans another launch next month, carrying another four ...
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Arianespace puts Orion 2 into orbit
Arianespace launched a 44LP booster from Kourou, French Guiana, on 19 October on mission V122, carrying the Orion 2 digital TV satellite for Loral Orion. It was the 48th consecutive Ariane 4 launch success and the third Ariane 4 launch in 45 days. The V123 mission, set for 13 November, ...
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Hughes introduces powerful satellites
Hughes Space and Communications has expanded its satellite product line with the HS 601 Plus and HS 702 Plus models. With existing spacecraft buses, the company will offer power from 2kW to 25kW. One of the primary enabling technologies is more efficient solar cells from Hughes subsidiary, Spectrolab. It ...
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Boeing and Pratt & Whitney work towards Delta III reflight
Boeing is conducting tests to prepare the Delta III rocket for its flight next year, after two initial launch failures. Boeing and the Delta second-stage engine supplier Pratt & Whitney say they are "very encouraged" by initial results from the improved RL10B-2 second stage engine combustion chamber brazing process. Voids ...
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Chauffair plans record Cessna order
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON ChauffAir has placed the largest ever single order for Cessna business jets in Europe. The seven Citation Excels, valued at $63 million, will be delivered to the Farnborough, UK-based operator in 2001 and join its business jet leasing scheme ChauffAir Share, which began on 21 October. ...
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Boeing pitches business jet to US Air Force
Boeing Business Jets hopes to increase its order book through the sale of its BBJ long-range business jet to the US military. The manufacturer is touting for orders for up to four aircraft from the US Air Force, which plans to acquire modified civil aircraft in corporate configuration to carry ...
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Police helicopter
The East Midlands Police air support unit in the UK has received a Eurocopter EC135. The twin-engined helicopter will be based at the unit's Husbands Bosworth base. It is the fourth to enter service with UK police forces in the last year. Source: Flight International
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Running with it
If Europe has found a way of sorting out its fragmented space, guided weapons, commercial aircraft and even helicopter industries with a path being trodden for avionics, radar and other defence systems, the fighter road is far from clear. It is a worrying sign, given that air power will ...
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Airbus sales irk US Congressman
America West Airlines has confirmed a deal for up to 77 Airbus Industrie A320 series aircraft. The move follows a Frontier Airlines letter of intent (LoI) for another 20 jets, rekindling US political criticism of the European manufacturer's growing success in the US market at Boeing's expense. Phoenix-based America ...
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Missile impasse
Russia has rejected a US offer of assistance to complete an early warning radar site at Irkutsk, Siberia, in exchange for amendment of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty to allow the planned National Missile Defense interceptor system to be deployed in Alaska. From there it would be able to protect ...
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GE uses Learjet experiment to plot unusual T-38 engine upgrade path
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES General Electric plans to certificate an upgraded CJ610 engine in a Learjet 20 as a means of offering the same conversion to the US Air Force for more than 500 Northrop T-38 Talon trainers. This will be as an "off the shelf" procurement. The unusual plan, thought ...
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Mexico LongRangers
Mexico's Attorney General's Office has ordered 24 Bell 206L-4 LongRanger helicopters for use in anti-drug missions. The $35 million deal calls for the first four machines to be delivered by December and the remaining 20 by next September. The new 206s, assembled at Bell's base in Montreal, Canada, will be ...
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Continental boss hits out at Airbus A340/ETOPS campaign
Continental Airlines chief executive Gordon Bethune has hit out at Airbus Industrie over its advertising campaign promoting the safety of four-engined aircraft versus twins on Pacific routes. In a letter to Airbus managing director Noel Forgeard, Bethune accuses Airbus of exploiting "the unfounded fears of the travelling public on ...
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British Midland gets ready for Star sign
British Midland (BM) is poised to sign to with Star Alliance after agreeing to a two-week period of exclusive negotiations with Lufthansa. BM has been veering towards one global grouping after another for months. BM says its "proposed agreement" with Lufthansa would see the German major acquire a 20% ...
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Boeing to study further 777 stretch
Andrew Doyle/BRUSSELS Boeing is studying the possibility of stretching the 777-300X to accommodate up to 60 more passengers. The move comes at the request of some of the airlines evaluating the twinjet as a replacement for the 747-400. "We're listening to the airlines and asking the question: 'Can ...
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SAA targets Nigeria for sub-Saharan alliance
Hilka Birns/CAPE TOWN South African Airways (SAA) aims to become the guiding force in an alliance of sub-Saharan airlines, as it negotiates to acquire a major shareholding in Nigeria Airways. The moves come as the South African carrier prepares to relaunch a competition to upgrade its short- and long-haul ...
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USA aims to extend open skies arrangements round the world
The US Government plans to use a forthcoming meeting to spark discussions on broadening the scope of current bilateral open skies agreements into regional or global arrangements. It has previously been reluctant to do this. The gathering of international transport and aviation authorities will take place in Chicago on ...
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ISS mission support site opens
Boeing support personnel for the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle have begun moving into a $3 million, engineering/mission support room (EMSR). Similar to NASA's mission control complex at Houston, the EMSR was opened at the company's Huntington Beach site in California on 18 October. It replaces ...
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Tupolev Tu-334 is cleared for assembly at Moscow factory
Series production of the Tupolev Tu-334 twinjet has moved a step nearer, with the Russian Government issuing a special order approving assembly at the MAPO plant in Moscow. The paper, signed in early October by Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, replaces a previous government decision to launch series production ...
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Bombardier will decide on regional jets early next year
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Bombardier says decisions on whether to proceed with the 90-seat CRJ-900 and 110-seat BRJ-X regional jets will be taken independently, within months of each other, next year. The Canadian company is offering the CRJ-900 to airlines, but will not have the authority to offer the ...